The St. Louis Blues [http://thn.com/stlouis] (7-9-6) will look to make it points in four straight games of this season-long five-game road trip when they take on the banged up New York Rangers [http://thn.com/rangers] (10-11-2) on Monday (6 p.m.; FDSNMW, ESPN 101.1-FM). The Blues are 1-0-2 on the trip and have bagged four of six points on this trip but picked up their first win on Saturday, 2-1 against the New York Islanders [http://thn.com/islanders] on Saturday. “It's three games in a row in this trip where we could be undefeated but we haven't been,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said Saturday, referring to overtime losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs [http://thn.com/toronto] and Philadelphia Flyers [http://thn.com/philadelphia]. “We've been resilient, we keep believing, we keep playing the right way, we got rewarded for it.” The Blues will implement a few changes in the lineup with Oskar Sundqvist, who was scratched on Saturday, going back in for Nick Bjugstad; Logan Mailloux, who was recalled from Springfield after scoring twice in five games with the Thunderbirds, coming back into the lineup for Matthew Kessel and Joel Hofer will get the nod in goal after Jordan Binnington was outstanding, especially in the third period, on Saturday stopping 30 shots. "I think it's just kind of bring some consistency to my game, move pucks, defend well, play hard and be tough to play against," Maillioux said. "Nobody wants to get sent down, but, no, I think it was good for me to play some minutes and play in all situations, just kind of get my feel back and my touch back. I'm happy to get back and get going." One line the Blues hope continues to progress since being assembled the past couple games is that of Brayden Schenn and Pavel Buchnevich flanked around Dalibor Dvorsky, the No. 10 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. That trip combined for the opening goal on Saturday scored by Schenn, his first goal in 12 games. Now if they can just get Buchnevich going, who hasn’t scored the past 14 games, in the goal-scoring department, it would be greatly beneficial. “We've had many line combinations throughout,” Schenn said after Saturday’s win. “Hopefully this gives us a little bit of stability. I've always enjoyed playing with ‘Buchy’ and ‘Dvo,’ he's smart. Trying to help him any way I can. He's going to be a good player in this league for a long time. Try and help him with any questions that he has. Hopefully this gets us kick-started. We actually feel like we've been playing a lot better hockey 1) defensively, and 2) harder. We slowly feel like we're building something here.” “Yeah, it's great to see the chemistry,” Montgomery said of the line. “It's two games in a row where they've played really well, connected together. They're reading off each other making plays and supporting plays in all three zones.” The Rangers have just one win on home ice (1-7-1) and have scored just 13 goals in nine games, shut out five times. - - - Blues Projected Lineup: Jake Neighbours-Robert Thomas-Jimmy Snuggerud Brayden Schenn-Dalibor Dvorsky-Pavel Buchnevich Dylan Holloway-Pius Suter-Jordan Kyrou Alexey Toropchenko-Oskar Sundqvist-Nathan Walker Philip Broberg-Colton Parayko Tyler Tucker-Justin Faulk Cam Fowler-Logan Mailloux Joel Hofer will start in goal; Jordan Binnington will be the backup. Healthy scratches include Mathieu Joseph, Nick Bjugstad and Matthew Kessel. The Blues have no injuries. - - - Rangers Projected Lineup: Will Cuylle-Mika Zibanejad-Alexis Lafreniere Artemi Panarin-Jusso Parssinen-Johnny Brodzinski Connor Sheary-Noah Laba-Brett Berard Adam Edstrom-Sam Carrick-Taylor Raddysh Vladislav Gavrikov-Adam Fox Carson Soucy-Braden Schneider Urho Vaakanainen-Matthew Robertson Igor Shesterkin will start in goal; Dylan Garand will be the backup. The Rangers have no healthy scratches. J.T. Miller (upper body), Jonathan Quick (lower body), Will Borgen (upper body) and Matt Rempe (upper body) are out. Vincent Trocheck (undisclosed) is questionable.
